Trying to understand what the man was implying since he couldn't feel any disruptions in his energy flow, Leon was stumped.
'What is this old master talking about?'
Having not found any flaws in his body as he inspected it quickly, while awaiting an answer, Leon was further confused.
"There seems to be a great disruption in your flow of yin and yang energy, but I suppose you aren't able to notice that yet."
Sighing again, the old man continued his instruction.
"Although your youthful body and strong soul is suppressing the separation of energy in your body, I believe you won't be able to break the wall to the higher ranks through cultivation in your current state."
Tilting his straw hat back down and laying back against the large tree, the man uttered one last statement.
"When you reach this wall come back to find me at this pond and we will discuss further."
Seeing the old master had ended the conversation, Leon could do nothing but reflect on the words he was given.
In order to reach this wall that the old man had spoken of, he knew that tremendous growth was required, and the way to achieve this growth was through overcoming great adversity.
'I must continue to strengthen myself through combat and grasping every opportunity that presents itself.'
Through this thought process he was able to motivate himself to continue pushing forward in his struggle for greater strength.
Finding his way back to the path, he continued his ascent towards the first gate.
After successfully defeating the gates up to the second one, he noticed an old man, with a gourd slung over his shoulder that had silver and gold needles protruding from its skin, sitting in a meditative position awaiting his arrival.
As Leon stepped closer the old man slowly opened one of his eyes and stared at the youth. This standstill continued for a few moments before the old man finally raised himself up from his meditation.
"Welcome to the Tiaguai Li Gate young challenger. You have proven your strength by passing through to the second gate, but I'm afraid you are not yet ready to pass beyond."
After slowly introducing the gate to Leon, he pulled the gourd from over his shoulder and took a long swig before putting a cork on the gourd.
Leon stared at the man with a baffled expression from his odd behavior and was slightly annoyed by his assessment.
"I've come to far to only stop here old man."
Snorting at the ignorant youth's comment, the old man pulled a few needles out from the gourd and expertly flung them towards the boy.
Unable to identify what liquid resided in the gourd, Leon was extra careful to avoid the incoming projectiles since even a scratch could result in unknown consequences.
Taking out a kunai, from among the small weapons he had gathered from FallenStar before coming to the mountain, Leon hurled it towards the gourd. Simultaneously, he utilized Silent Strides to further increase the gap of agility between him and the old man.
At first the old man was fooled by the after-image Leon left behind, but soon recognized his mistake and focused on the shadow moving quickly behind him.
'This youngster is quite agile, but as long as I maintain my distance I will still have the advantage.'
As he continued to hurl the silver needles at his opponent, the old man slowly began cutting off all gaps the boy could utilize to reach him.
Eventually he had cornered his foe against one of the trees on the side of the path, and believed he had won with the needle now being thrown from between his fingers with nowhere for the boy to turn.
Seeing the old man believed he had won Leon glanced at the distance between the two of them and glanced back at the tree behind him.
'Shit, this old man isn't the second gatekeeper for show. I only have one option but I need to time it perfectly or it will be my defeat.'
Calming himself, Leon waited for the needle thrown by the old man to reach halfway to him before suddenly jumping up and kicking his legs off of the tree behind him.
Not expecting to see the youth hurtling towards him, the old man was startled and quickly reached for another needle.
Noticing what the old man was trying to achieve Leon quickly extended his right leg in a wide arc before planting his foot on the old man's head.
Thankfully he was able to land a hit and pass the second trial successfully. Leon gazed at the unconscious man laying beneath his feet.
However, as he was about to begin his journey to the final gate, Leon started to feel dizzy as he gazed down at the side of his leg and noticed a silver needle.
'Dammnnn! He just barely got me...'
Leon drunkenly stumbled over to the old man's gourd and removed the cork while fighting the urge to fall asleep.
After taking a whiff of its contents, Leon wrinkled his nose in disgust.
'How the hell do you drink this old man? This is clearly alcohol mixed with poison!'
Leon sat down beside the old man as he tried to figure out where the antidote might be hidden.
'Wait a minute! Throughout the entire fight he had only used these silver needles, but there are clearly gold ones as well sticking out from the gourd.'
Deciding he would take the risk since he did not have the necessary time to wait for the old man to gain consciousness, Leon grabbed one of the golden needles and penetrated his skin where the silver needle had hit its mark.
After a few minutes Leon began to feel warmth again circulating throughout his body, and was grateful he had chosen correctly.
'Fuck, you almost had me there old man, I'll give you that.'
Standing up from where he had been meditating, while in wait for the effect of the poison to be lifted, Leon shook his head and laughed as he made his way to the final gate.
'Hopefully the next bastard isn't as sneaky...'
Finally, after climbing the final stairs and traversing the last length of the pathway, Leon spotted the final gate and its disciple.
"I was planning to have to wait all day to see whether or not you would be able to make it here, but it seems it was rather sooner than I originally expected."
The final disciple grinned as he placed his gaze on Leon, itching to begin their fight.
"Yeah, well that makes two of us then so we better not keep each other waiting."
Liking the arrogant attitude of the youth, the man couldn't help but chuckle.
"Ha I like your style kid, welcome to the Lu Dongbin Gate!"
Immediately after welcoming the youth, the final disciple rapidly approached while pulling out two hook swords from behind his back.
The disciple's smile glittered on the blades reflections as he brandished them in front of the youth.
'I guess he is more of an actions speak louder than words type guy.'
Appreciating the final disciple's eagerness, Leon approached his opponent as well as he utilized Silent Strides to match the disciple's speed.
Retrieving his dagger from the back of his waist while he gripped a kunai in the other, Leon deflected the first couple of strikes from the first disciple, but was being pushed back with every blocked strike and even dropped the kunai.
'Damn his strength is greater than mine currently. I'm gonna have to use tactics over might if I'm gonna have any chance at victory.'
Leon chucked some needles he had taken from the second disciple's gourd and hurled them at the first disciple as he tried to create some distance for him to safely plan his victory.
Recognizing the needles of the second disciple being hurtled towards him, the first disciple quickly stepped backwards to dodge.
The silver needles penetrated the ground a couple centimeters in front of his feet and caused his momentum to stop.
Seeing the challenger was trying to buy himself time, the first disciple lifted his swords in front of his face, brought them together, and closed his eyes.
An aura began emanating from the disciple before he slipped out of Leon's vision.
Noticing that the challenger didn't possess the ability to react to his speed, the first disciple grinned and prepared his gloating for his rapidly approaching victory.
'He's increased his speed even further! I will have to rely on my other senses if I want to even locate his movements.'
Frustrated with this new turn of events, Leon focused himself as he tried to locate his opponent's whereabouts.
'Wasting my focus and energy on locating him is going to result in my defeat. I need to wait for the opening when he reveals himself to land a strike.'
Realizing that discovering his opponent was now useless, Leon prepared himself to finish his opponent the instant he revealed himself to attack.
Suddenly, Leon heard the whistling of the blades cutting through the air to his left, and immediately side stepped before creating a wide arc with his dagger, while sneakily tossing the rest of the remaining poisoned needles in his possession.
The first disciple was caught off guard and was unprepared for the counter-attack hidden by the path of his opponent's dagger.
"Eurkkkkk!"
Since the poison was fast acting Leon knew the fight had been finished.
'Now with the physical labor aside I can begin my infiltration!'
With a bright and cunning smile, Leon tore the insignia off the first disciple's shoulder to prove at the gate he had completed the trials, and continued on to the sect where the precious sword he had admired from his past life was calling him.